Another Barren Sudirman Cup for Indonesia, but Plenty to Be Hopeful About
Jakarta. A 3-1 loss to China in the Vivo Sudirman Cup 2015 semifinal has prolonged Indonesia’s title drought in the world’s mixed team championships, but promising performances from some shuttlers show there’s a glimpse of hope for Indonesia in the future.
“All the shuttlers did their best on the court,” team manager Rexy Mainaky told badmintonindonesia.org, the website of the Indonesian Badminton Association, or PBSI, on Sunday.
“In previous matches, other teams lost to China 5-0 or 3-0. But we managed to give them a good fight and took one point.”
Indonesia started out the tie in Dongguan, China, positively when Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan beat reigning Olympic champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in the men’s doubles.
But in the next match, the women’s singles, Indonesia’s Bellaetrix Manuputty sprained her left knee while leading 5-3 in the first game against Li Xuerui, the world number one, and was forced to retire.
The men’s number one, Chen Long, then dispatched of 63rd-ranked Indonesian Jonatan Christie easily in the men’s singles to give China a 2-1 lead in the tie.
With everything to play for, Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari started out well in the women’s doubles against Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang, but lost in three games, 17-21, 21-17, 21-15, to hand China victory and a place in the final.
Despite the loss, Indonesia had a relatively good campaign.
Hendra and Ahsan performed well throughout, winning their matches against all four opponents that Indonesia faced at the tournament.
The men’s singles player, all inexperienced and not expected to contribute points, stuck to the script, with their only win coming in the quarterfinals against Taiwan, when Jonatan took three games to beat Hsu Jen Hao.
Firman Abdul Kholik, another of the men’s singles players, lost to Danish ace Jan O. Jorgensen in the group stage, but left an impression on the world number three.
“He’s very, very young. He still has a lot of time to get to that level,” Jorgensen told badmintonindonesia.org. “He’ll get much better in the next few years. I’ll have a tough opponent in the coming years.”
Bellaetrix and Lindaweni Fanetri won their women’s singles matches in the group stage, while Greysia and Nitya, the 2014 Asian Games champions, won three of their four matches in the campaign.
“Greysia and Nitya forced themselves in second game [against Tang and Yu],” Rexy said. “They shouldn’t have tried to press their opponents if it didn’t work out. Take it easy first, then press them again.”
The mixed doubles pair of Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad, the reigning Asian champions and 2013 world champions, were a rare disappointment in the Sudirman Cup campaign, losing to England’s Chris and Gabrielle Adcock in their first match.
Backup pair Debby Susanto and Praveen Jordan then lost to Denmark’s Mads Pieler Kolding and Sara Thygesen, and with no mixed doubles matches played in the quarterfinals or semifinals, that meant the mixed doubles teams failed to contribute any points to the campaign.
Overall, though, Rexy said he was satisfied with the team’s performance and the improvement shown by some of the players.
“It was a good experience for Jonatan. I hope he can improve his game and play better in critical matches in the future,” he said. “If Bella didn’t injure [her knee], I believe the result would have been different because she was showing great confidence in the match.
“Overall, the team has a good mix of young and veteran players. I believe it will be good for our regeneration process and will give China a threat.”
China claimed its 10th Sudirman Cup on Sunday by defeating Japan 3-0.
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